[Casual] Starting Deck. What should I be looking to do to improve it?

[daftyman]

Starting Deck

Started from a Throne of Eldrane Sealed event and a welcome deck.
Just started playing after my boys expressed an interest. Have a deck, but would appreciate a bit of feedback on the sort of thing I should be looking for.
Is the Mana curve all wrong?
Will only use standard expansion packs as I don't want to go down the rabbit hole of seeking individual cards. So I guess a better spread of cards. Should I try to avoid/keep duplicates?

Thanks in advance.
D

[daftyman]

I am now reading the sticky posts! Standard noob mistake I guess. Doh!

[Aetherium Slinky]

If you like singleton (one of each card) you should get familiar with Elder Dragon Highlander, nowadays known as EDH or Commander.

Regarding other formats like Modern you indeed should embrace duplicates or four-ofs because they increase consistency and stability of your deck. They also make building combos much easier.

[DrunkWooky]

I like to find cards that perform the functions you already like about your deck but do it more efficiently. I like to go to gatherer (a wizards online card database) and search for the rule Tex i’m Looking for and then sort by converted mana cost (low to high). Then I ask “is there a card that does the same thing as what I have, but for less mana?” “Is there one that also has an additional effect for the same amount of mana?”

I’d say looking for individual cards on websites like cardkingdom and tcgplayer can be very beneficial without becoming a rabbit hole. A lot of cards you would need can be found for $.25 - $.99 each. There are some super expensive cards, but in most cases you can find a less expensive alternative that is ever so slightly less efficient on the battlefield.

[Strictly_Dueling]

The best advice I can give you is to develop a deck theme. It seems like your current deck is just a bunch of white and black cards from the current set. If you can find cards that do similar things or help each other do better things, you can make an effective deck.

You generally want multiple copies of a card in your deck, if you want to draw a card in your opening hand as frequently as possible, make sure to include four copies of that card. If you ant to draw a card at least once every game, make sure to include three copies of that card. If you're alright with not seeing a card every game, it's alright to put two or three.

Some deck suggestions I have if you want to build something pretty good in the current set:
  1. Mardu Knights - Black, White, Red.
  2. Izzet Card Draw - Blue, Red.

Both are pretty easy to build and if you're only playing casual with friends, they should do pretty well for the time being.